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Foolish Forecast: Accenture Can't Fail

Views you can use to get clues on tomorrow's news.

Management consulting and outsourcing is Accenture's (NYSE:ACN) game, and on Thursday night, we'll see the company's final results for the fourth quarter and full fiscal year of 2007. Let's size this stock up a bit, shall we?

It's hard to find a negative opinion among the dozens of commentary write-ups here, and what little criticism there is focuses on valuation issues. It's much easier to find a solid bullish opinion, like this one from an All-Star CAPS player:

They generate a bunch of cash year in and year out. They have minimal debt. Their ROE is consistently enormous. They have a strong pipeline of quality customers. Maybe they follow their own advice?

Here's how Accenture's CAPS scoring rates against some of its peers and competitors:

Revenue. The company is guiding us to a $4.8 billion to $5 billion range, up from $4 billion a year ago.

Earnings. Management expects to deliver adjusted EPS of about $1.94 to $1.96 for the full year. Since the first three quarters added up to $1.47, the fourth installment should land at $0.48 per share, give or take a penny, giving last year's $0.39 per share a sound beating.

What management does:You can't argue with results. Except for a small downtick in the last quarter, Accenture is heading upward in every efficiency measure you care to name. Revenue growth is picking up lately, and a generous buyback program reduced the share count by 8.7% between the third quarters of 2006 and 2007. Add it all up, and you have a hefty earnings-per-share machine with even stronger cash flows.

All data courtesy of Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's. Data reflects trailing-12-month performance for the quarters ended in the named months.

One Fool says:The former Andersen Consulting has put the Enron scandal far behind it. The company was never directly involved in that massive imbroglio, but Arthur Andersen and Andersen Consulting always were too similar in their Danishness for the general public to notice the differences. Call it "collateral damage."

But the company's now running like clockwork, even in these times of economic uncertainty. That's partly because of its excellent diversification across industries -- technology, government, financial services, and others -- and geographies. The Americas and EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) are pulling about 45% each of the revenue pie, while Asia-Pacific delivers strong growth.

In fact, judging by the CAPS opinions above, it looks like it's hard to fail at consulting and outsourcing services today. Accenture is the biggest and best of its breed in that sector, and it's no surprise to see management ratcheting up full-year expectations at every update. The gravy train ain't stopping here, folks.

Fool contributor Anders Bylund holds no position in any of the companies discussed here. You can check out Anders' holdings if you like, and Foolish disclosure is the prognosticator of prognosticators.